Презентация на тему Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754)

English novel
the greatest novelist of the 18th century

Features of Fielding’s Novels

deep knowledge of life
In order to make a living

for himself, he began to write plays and farces for the stage

popular playwrights in London.
Most of his dramatic works

were satiric comedies.
Fielding mercilessly exposed the corruption, hypocrisy and cruelty of the officials.

government and aroused hatred of the ruling class.
In

1737 an act appeared, according to which plays should be brought under direct censorship.

ended his career as a playwright and took up

the study of law.
He was made a judge in 1748.

Walpole
Theatrical Licensing Act: directed primarily at him

gain the approval of Walpole's new governing body
Quit the

theater and entered law school and graduated in 1740.

his first novel, Joseph Andrews,1742. 
a parody of the best-selling

novel at the time, Pamela: or Virtue Rewarded, by Samuel Richardson, about a virtuous servant girl.

masterpiece
Amelia, his last novel

fight against social evils of his time.
His later

years were devoted to the duties as a magistrate.

of English novel?

claiming his fiction was fact.
Richardson: declared that his tales

were moral tracts, emphasizing the instructional rather than the fictional aspect.
Fielding: the first major novelist to unabashedly write fiction.

He set up the theory of realism in literary

creation.

life was the basis of his work.
He did

not rely simply on his imagination.
He did not imitate the characters depicted in the works of earlier authors.

real men and women in real life.
He gave

us genuine pictures of men and women of his own age.

comic epic in prose
he once described himself as

“great, tattered bard.”

as well as entertainment.
Fielding believed in the educational

function of the novel.

Great
3. Tom Jones
4. Amelia

Richardson’s Pamela

the novel:
Joseph Andrews, Pamela’s brother

in Pamela.
Joseph, a very handsome young man, is

a male servant in Lady Booby's house.

but Joseph repels her temptation.
Lady Booby is quite

angry with him and drives him away.

country girl named Fanny.
On the way, he is

robbed and carried to an inn, where he meets Parson Adams who becomes his good friend.

with many ridiculous adventures.
After overcoming a lot of

difficulties, Joseph and Fanny are united.

of the “comic epic in prose”
whose subject is “the

true ridiculous” in human nature, exposed in all its variety as Joseph and the amiable Quixote.

to accept much of what he sees around him;

in Book III, he states that his purpose is "to hold the glass to thousands in their closets, that they may contemplate their deformity, and endeavor to reduce it." But just as Fielding excludes the burlesque, which makes up the entirety of Shamela,from his "sentiments and characters".

a mere criticism of the "ridiculous" to a positive

statement and portrayal of the values in which he believed. We find that we are no longer merely laughing at people and situations, but also laughing with them; we are taking delight, rather than laughing in scorn. Our sense of delight at the close of Joseph Andrews is in no sense destructive, but represents one of the many aspects of this book which can be considered under such headings as form, characterization, style, and moral tone

confusing episodes, finally aligning them with their correct partners

in an improved social setting, from which the most recalcitrant characters are excluded; the characters, for the most part, have all measured and achieved a greater degree of self-knowledge. Thus the marriage of Fanny to a more experienced Joseph takes place in an ideal setting — the country — and is facilitated by the generosity of an enlightened Mr. Booby. Lady Booby, unchanged and unreformed, returns to London, excluding herself from the society which Fielding has reshaped.

correct excess, and Fielding has not spared the devious

practices of a lawyer Scout, or the boorish greed of a Parson Trulliber. But his comedy includes a sense of delight, and the order into which he molds Joseph Andrews is a positive affirmation of the qualities of love, charity, and sincerity, expressed by Adams, Joseph, and Fanny.
.

Fielding’s method of relating a story is telling

the story directly by the author.

function of the novel.
The object of his novels

is to present a faithful picture of life, while sound teaching is woven into their very texture.